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This is As They Were...
they are just waiting for you to find them.

Plans to move the priceless Book of Kells from its current home to a basement location in the nearby Berkeley have been scraped after a furious response from Trinity staff.

A letter to the Trinity Provost Dr. Paddy Prendergast outlined staff concerns about the project:

'The master plan proposes the relocation of the Book of Kells to the Berkeley Library basement. This area is liable to serious flooding and is unsafe as a location for the country's greatest treasure. The plan seems irresponsible and a recipe for extremely adverse publicity.'

Trinity College is undergoing a major tourism reboot as it seeks to expand its income from its fantastic location in the very heart of Dublin City. Already the Book of Kells is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the country but the new plans will expand the tourist experience in the grounds of the College, which was established in 1592. Courtesy of Michael GreenIreland-Information

Irish historian Oonagh Walsh believes that the Great Hunger triggered a higher rate of mental illness among later generations, including both those who stayed in Ireland and those who emigrated.
Walsh said at a Science Week event at IT Sligo that the severe nutritional deprivation between 1845 and 1850 caused "epigenetic change." Epigenetics is the study of changes in gene expression. These do not necessarily involve changes to the genetic code, but the effects may persist for several generations. Walsh estimated that the impact from epigenetic change from the Great Hunger lasted for a century and a half.
Walsh's research is still at an early stage, but she expects to see a correlation between the high rates of mental illness and the effects of maternal starvation. She also thinks there may be a connection between the Great Hunger and cardiovascular and other diseases.
Part of her argument examines the increase of patients in asylums after the famine. According to the 1841 census there were 1,600 patients in district asylums, plus 1,500 in jails and workhouses of Ireland's total population of eight million.
By 1900, fifty years after, the Irish population had been halved, but the number in asylums had increased. There were 17,000 in district asylums and a further 8,000 "lunatics at large."
Walsh did note that not all the patients checked into asylums were mentally ill.
She told the Irish Times that the Dangerous Lunatic Act, which permitted persons perceived as being mentally deranged and intending to commit a crime to be held in a jail or asylum, was "abused on a staggering scale."
Emigrating families who did not want to bring along a relative who would be an economic burden would commit their family member to an asylum instead. Possibly some families who were not emigrating also did this. She rebuffed the idea that there were also high rates of asylum admissions among Irish emigrants in Australia and Canada.
Walsh's most recent book, "Insanity, Power and Politics in Nineteenth Century Ireland: The Connaught District Lunatic Asylum" was published in 2013. She has written several book chapters and articles on medical history, particularly psychiatry and gender history. Walsh is a founding member of the Consortium for Medical Humanities and she works in research and funding initiatives with colleagues from the University of Limerick, Queen's University Belfast, University College Cork and the National Archives of Ireland.
The potato blight that triggered the Great Hunger was brought by ship from the eastern seaboard of Canada and the United States. Many Irish had grown dependent on the potato because it produced a high yield on their small plots and had great nutritional value. A series of crop failures left many Irish with few places to turn for help.
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Wednesday, 14 May 2014

For those who purchase Ennis at Work in the 19th Century they will also receive a free copy of Water Park House from the Big House to Council Chamber. This book, compiled by Clare Roots Society committee members Larry Brennan and Declan Barron, with the assistance of one of our diaspora members, Katrina Pilkington Vincent, covers the genealogies of the families for whom Waterpark House was a private residence, as well as the more recent role of the building, as a seat of local government. This book will only be available on the launch night, as Ennis Town Council have issued a limited number of copies for distribution to Clare Roots Society members. Waterpark book will not be available in the shops.

The Waterpark book is only available on the night of the launch. Ennis at work costs €10.

Sunday, 11 May 2014

The Kilrush & District Historical Society May lecture will take place on Tuesday, 27 May, at 8p.m. in the Teach Ceoil, Grace Street, Kilrush.Katrina Pilkington Vincent, all the way from Australia, will talk about "200 years of Pilkingtons in Clare and Australia from Family Letters and Diaries". Katrina has recentlycontributed to a Clare Roots Society publication on "Waterpark House, Drumbiggle, Ennis, County Clare: From the Big House to Council Chamber", due to be launched in early May to mark the abolition of Ennis Town Council. In the 19th century, the Pilkington family divided their time between Waterpark and Kiltrellig, and the family archive contains fascinating first hand accounts of life in Kilbaha up to a century and a half ago.

Admission free for KDHS members, EUR5 for non-members. New members welcome.

This extended Pilkington family group photograph was taken at Kiltrellig in 1871 and includes 3 generations of the family.

Thursday Night the 15th May at 8.00 p.m. in the Old Ground Hotel Clare Roots Society will launch its latest book "Ennis at Work in the 19th Century". The book will be launched by CIlr. Mary Coote Ryan, Mayor, Ennis Town Council, The book looks at the trades and occupations of milling, building and printing, the drapers and grocers and wine merchants, and the doctors and lawyers, as they developed and changed throughout the course of the 19th century. Researched and edited by Lucille Ellis, the book looks at the trades through the lives of certain families who were prominent in these areas, and their stories tell of life as it was lived in Ennis. Families researched include Bannatyne, Carroll, Cullinan, Gallery, Gibson, Knox, McBeath, O'Brien, Parsons, Russell and Shaw. To those who walk old Drumcliff these names will be familiar and linked to a number of family tombs.

Ennis was large enough to have its own milling business and because it was the capital of the County, there was a demand for infrastructure and public building as well as private housing. These trades serviced a fairly large and populous hinterland so both the shopkeepers and the professionals, such as doctors and lawyers, had a wide clientele. In addition the population of the county was sufficiently educated and literate to support at least two local newspapers throughout the century.

A thread common to all of the families that are written about is their involvement in the civic life of the town. All at some stage in their lives were members of the Poor Law Guardians, the Town Commissioners or Committees for local charitable groups. They were also usually involved with their Church, be it Catholic or Church of Ireland. We also learn how a number of these families coped after bankrupcy.

In her research Lucille has matched with examples for each tradeone or two prominent families and woven their personal histories into the history of their given occupations. When it comes to the printing trades we read about the Knox and Parsons families who were the clear leaders in their field.

The final chapter in her book takes us back to an evening in June 1868 when a huge part of the population of Ennis attended a musical evening on the River Fergus with up to 20 boats taking part.

The research includes the standard building blocks in family research, state birth, marriage and death records and the parallel church records, the Griffith's land valuation records along with the Valuation books which document the ownership of the land records up to the mid-twentieth century. Use was also made of the1901 and 1911 censuses. She has also drawn on some new sources such as leases of lands, and marriage settlements. Some of the best sources of information came from the newspapers of the day.

The book is illustrated throughout with old photographs, contemporary maps and newspaper advertisements.

Lucile Ellis was born and is living in Dublin but has two grandparents from Clare. Twenty years of family history research have established that related families are still living in West Clare and East Clare on the same lands, since the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries respectively, with one branch having Ennis connections.

While teaching the senior classes in primary school, she was fortunate that the curriculum encouraged involvement in local history, in her case, the Dún Laoghaire/Dalkey area. When she retired she decided to combine the two interests of family and local history and did a local history course at NUI Maynooth, writing the final paper on some business families in Ennis (this paper is in the Local Studies Centre). Then with the backing and encouragement of the Clare Roots Society, and in particular Larry Brennan and Eric Shaw, this paper developed into the book "Ennis at Work in the 19th Century".

In the early 1970s when she did her degree in History researching primary sources wasn't the norm; now this is encouraged, even at primary school level. The past can really come alive to us now through old newspapers, photographs and maps, many of which can be accessed online or in places like the Clare Library Local Studies Centre which is a treasure trove of the past. Ennis is fortunate in having so many people, both in the Local Authorities and in the general population, who have a deep interest in the history of their town and wish to retain and record as much of it as possible. Lucille hopes that this book adds a little more to this effort, and she hopes to continue researching the past of this wonderful town.